Mentor shoots down Sunday deer bowhunting

Only one of the two major changes proposed to Mentor’s deer hunting ordinance survived City Council’s vote Tuesday night.
The request to allow bowhunting on Sundays — in addition to the other days of the week during deer season — was shot down by a 6-1 vote. Ward 3 Councilman Bruce Landeg dissented.
The administration had suggested the additional day to increase the number of deer taken by those who can only hunt on weekends.
Councilwoman at large Janet Dowling made the motion to retain the prohibition on Sunday hunts.
“Our program was very successful last year,” she said. “I don’t really see the benefit of hunting on Sundays.”
More than 130 deer were taken in the city’s first bowhunt and another 212 were culled by police department sharpshooters.
Other recommended changes to the ordinance were approved 6-1, this time with Ward 1 Councilman Robert M. Shiner voting no.
The amendments include decreasing the required amount of acreage for hunting to 3 acres (down from 5), if all 3 can be “actively” hunted; and allowing municipally owned, nonpark land to be included in up to five contiguous parcels to make up the required acreage for a hunt.
Shiner noted that, although city land can help make up the acreage, bowhunting still cannot take place on it. The culls do occur within Mentor parks.
In other action, council authorized an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation for a deer-vehicle warning signs project along up to 1,200 feet of Lake Shore Boulevard.
The city was awarded more than $54,000 in grant money for the system, which involves adding sound and light emitters by the road just east of Hopkins Road — one of the highest deer-vehicle crash areas in the city.
A total of 135 units will be installed at intervals of 70 to 150 feet. The units are activated by oncoming headlights.
Mentor is the first in Ohio to try the program, which will be reviewed by state and city officials during a three-year period.